Artsy Craftsy
by Verboten Byacolate
Summary: He only needed a little help with the creative process. Deidara.OC


_A/N PLEASE READ;_ I can explain. Really. Amaya Chieko is my most-used character in an RPG that many of my close ff.n pals and I have formed (not created, but the creator has neglected his beautiful domain). She is a member of the Akatsuki (SHE'S NOT A MARY-SUE. PLEASE BELIEVE ME.) and, over the many months since her birth, she has gained a true personality and owns me completely now. Her shinobi area of expertise is with ink. It's sort of like Sai, but not really; her ink is less like a 2D picture, and more like a sculpture (if she even uses it for purposes like spying with ink creatures). She keeps containers of different kinds of ink on her belt, for different situations, and the ink even destroys people from the inside by seeping into their pores. She's in a team with Tobi and Deidara (for 'twas them that I was infatuated with when the RPG started, and not Team Zombie, who now has their own charge, but we'll NOT go into THAT), and at the beginning in her profile (which I've barely followed at all because she's developed by herself) I stated that she saw Deidara as a brotherly figure. It was going like that for a long time, and nobody in the RPG believed her, and nobody out of the RPG believed me (!!!), and then I forced _**Winter Thunder**_ to play. I swear, she made Chieko fall in love with Deidara, and she made Deidara fall in love with Chieko, and she made ME fall in love with the fricking pairing!! So, yeah. This is her fault._  
_  
Requested by **_Winter Thunder_**, my darling duckie. Blame her. BLAME HER!!  
_Disclaimer;_ Deidara belongs to Kishimoto.  
_Claimer; _Amaya Chieko is are belong to us! (The setting belongs to Winter Thunder, tho'. Yeah. It's an AU)  
_Dedication;_ For all of those artists out there struggling with inspiration. I'M HERE FOR YOU!!

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**Artsy Craftsy

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**

Chieko was certain that she was screwed. It wasn't that she had forgotten her art homework at school; it was that she had FORGOTTEN her ART homework at SCHOOL. That was just... wrong. And it was art class. She shook her head, exasperated, red hair flying every which way, and entered the building once more, striding briskly for the art room. She burst in loudly, as usual, not wanting to skulk around like most of the kids at the school.

"Sasori-sensei? Ne, Sasori-sensei, sorry, but I totally forgot my-- Deidara?" She tripped over a dust particle and grabbed one of the counters jutting out of the wall for support. He glanced up.

"Yo."

"What are you doing here?"

"Finishing my project in would-be peace, hmm," he replied. She glanced at him as he turned back to his project on the farther side of the room, seated at one of the tables. He held a brush between his fingertips and glared at the paper in front of him. She skipped closer, leaning over his shoulder, in his personal space, and looked at the blank paper.

"What's wrong?" she asked, folding her arms over the shoulder and peering down. He grunted. She scowled, tugging on his ponytail. "Dei-chan, I'm trying to be sympathetic here. You're making me want to poke you instead. Why aren't you painting anything?"

"I have no inspiration," he said. "I also have no passion for ink, and I don't see how you do, hmm." He squinted at the paper. "There is no depth to ink. It's just... there."

"You're such a wet blanket, Dei-chan," Chieko clucked. "Methinks there's very little depth to _you_." She wrapped her right arm around his other shoulder, laying it over his arm and grabbing the brush in his hand. "But I can understand where you're coming from with your no-inspiration bout. It happens a lot to me. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to create something, and... and then you're out of your rut!"

"That doesn't happen with clay," he retorted quietly. "As long as your working with it, it'll turn out to be something, and whatever it is is a work of art, hmm."

"Yeah, well, you may just have to force yourself, because that blank paper is due tomorrow." She grinned. "I guarantee that anything will be more interesting than this Arctic landscape during a blizzard.

"Say something inspiring, hmm," he said, bringing the end of the brush between his teeth. She hummed.

"I'm bad at talking about inspiring stuff."

"Keep humming, then."

She complied. It started with a sort of quick-paced melody and he leaned his head back, letting his eyelids droop.

"Sing the lyrics, hmm," Deidara mumbled. "This beat is meaningless without them."

She sighed, fighting the urge to bite back with some rude remark. "_Wracking my brain, going insane, again and again. I won't keep going this way." _She breathed, relaxing her hold on him._ " Crushed, by the sweetest lips I never kissed_." Chieko folded her fingers over his and dipped the brush in the ink well. "_And your fingertips, and the warmest touch that I always missed. Crushed by the softest hands that I've never held. Probably never tell; you're the strongest love that I've ever felt. Crushed that I haven't ever let you know how it always goes, 'cause I lose my nerve whenever you get close. And I'm left, short of breath, with that heavy feeling in my chest_ ." She let go of his hand and stood back. Chieko slid the band out of his hair and combed it out, pulling the hair in front of his face back into a new ponytail. "_Baby, I'm so crushed_."

"I'm still uninspired, hmm."

"Well... so?"

"Give me something else."

She blushed. "My voice isn't that great, you know." He didn't reply, and she sighed once more. "Hmm, what to sing..."

"Something about art please, hmm."

"Okay." She took the band out again and tunneled her fingers through the thick blond hair. "_I know that you're an artist; you're the hardest one to deal with. Everything that you conceal is revealed on your canvas. You find all of your ugly meanings in the things I find beautiful. Do you see the fall is coming? Come, I'm falling into you ."_

Deidara blinked and dabbed the brush in the inkwell once more, letting it fall to the page in an immediate curve. He felt the unfamiliar tugs on his scalp of his hair being braided. He almost protested, but honestly, why upset the current balance?

_"You percieve all these things I'd never have known, wo-oah. Love, will you turn out the lights, 'cause will we're already home? Home."_

It took smaller curve and a sharp edge for him to realize that he was painting a bird. It was a familiar subject in an unfamiliar medium, and he would not be met halfway. But at least now he had something to work with.

_"You painted me in pastels, colors that don't tell of any boldness. 'Cause that's the way you'd love to see me, so delicate, so weak, so little purpose."_

The body was complete, and he began to falter at the two-dimensional details that he was not used to. She seemed to notice and, tying the bottom of the braid with his hair band, she leaned over him once more, taking the brush in her fingers for the second time. "Here," she whispered, "for accenting the edge of the wing. That's all you really need."

"Just keep singing, hmm," he mumbled back, cheeks burning.

_"But your eyes are drawn of charcoal. They're black, they're so cold, they're so imperfect, because they see a sleeping world where waking isn't worth it."_

He dipped for more ink and finished the bird as her song came to a close. When she was done, he glanced back. She retracted her arms. "Well," Chieko said, smiling, "now all you have to do is the background! I'm gonna head out."

"Oh yeah... homework, hmm?"

"Yup." Chieko looked down, shuffling her feet a bit. "Um..."

"Yes?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, backing up. Her face looked flushed.

"You're going to trip over someth--" he started, and before his sentence had finished, she stumbled into a chair and, with a small cry of surprise, she fell to the ground.

"Yeah. Ow," she moaned, blinking up at him from her spot on the floor. He chuckled.

"Clutz."

"You're so chivalrous," she groused, and glared even when he stood, holding out a hand for her.

"I told you it would happen, hmm."

"Actually, you never finished your sentence." She took the hand and let him pull her from the floor. "Wow, you're strong," she said at his easy tug, letting go of his hand and running teasing fingertips over his muscled biceps. He snorted.

"You're extremely light, hmm. Like a damned feather."

"It's not my fault I have a high metabolism."

"More like an eating disorder, hmm."

"I do not!" she cried indignantly, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling his front down closer to eye-level. She glared.

"You don't even play any sports," he said.

"It's in my genes, you jerk." She blushed. "I'm just... no good at sports."

"You're uncoordinated, hmm."

"... yeah."

He smiled. "Maybe you should go out for choir."

"No fucking way."

"Why not?"

"I can't sing in front of people!" she gasped, eyes wide. "Don't talk crazy!"

"You're shy too?"

"Well...!"

"..." He stared at her. She blushed.

"W-what?"

"You're pathetic, hmm."

"Hey!" she squealed, poking him hard in the shoulder. "I gave you inspiration, dammit! You should be thanking me, not insulting me!"

Deidara cocked his head to the side and grinned. "Thanks."

"O-oh..." she stuttered, a crimson streak trailing from cheek to cheek. "You're welcome..."

Chieko looked at her hand, still rested on his shoulder. She could feel his eyes intent on her face and she only felt the color in her cheeks darken. Something to say... _anything_ to say...

"That braid brings out the woman in you, Dei," she teased quietly, unable to bring herself to look in his eyes. He started and she smiled.

"Dammit, Chieko," he growled, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. "I'm going to hate you later for making this such a cliche movie-ish scene, hmm." She squeaked when he took her chin in his hand and studied her face for a moment with both of his eyes for once, and leaned closer. She felt his breath fan over her lips and felt more than slightly light-headed.

"Does that mean you're going to regret... whatever it is?"

"Probably not, hmm," he replied, closing the distance between them, mouth-first. Her fingers went numb on his shoulders and her legs began to imitate a bowl of Jello. He pulled back when she started to sink.

"Y-you..." she tried, her heart leaping in her throat. "You kissed me!"

"Oh, you think?"

"Dear Lord," she moaned. "I... I think I need to sit down."

"Are you okay?"

"I don't know," she replied, stumbling over to a nearby seat with his help. "M-my heart... it's..." she breathed, unable to form more words. He gave her a worried stare, kneeling before her, hands on her knees.

"Chieko?" His hand fell on her cheek. The already lightning-fast pace quickened. She wondered if he could hear the deafening beat.

"I'll be okay. Just let it... register."

"Hmm." He grinned and rose on his knees, resting his lips over hers once more. All she felt was fire. Chieko gasped, pulling back.

"A-ah, y-you're going to give me a h-heart attack!"

"Yeah." He looked down. "Do you think... that it wouldn't be so bad... if you were..." He scratched the back of his neck. "... More used to it, hmm?"

"A-are you asking me...?"

"Out?" he prompted. Chieko smiled.

"Well..." She paused. "If I can help your creative process..."

"Maybe I'll cure some of your shyness too, hmm," he said, voice lowering a decibal. She blushed.

"D-don't insinuate!"

"Fine. So you accept, hmm?"

She smiled, cheeks red, and touched her forehead to his.

"I would love to be your inspiration, Deidara."

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**Lyrics: _Crushed_, by Rosette, and _The Artist_, by The Hush Sound.  
Written while listening to Tokio Hotel's album Shrei, So Laut du Kannst  
If anyone has truly read this, and plans to review because they're angels sent from GOD, then I'm going to say something I usually wouldn't say; don't bash my OC. I love Chieko. She is a part of my soul; one of the bigger parts. Please don't bash her.  
Thank you!  
-Bya**


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